BLURB
Set in Thailand, Life In Shadows is a 10,000 word literary romance short story about love, regret and duty.
Thirty years ago, Charles Shaw wrote his critically acclaimed first novel. The world is still waiting for his second book. When aspiring freelance journalist and ex-pat Michael Hayes is granted an interview with Shaw in Bangkok, he is determined to discover why the famous author is now a recluse.
But Shaw doesn’t give his secrets away easily and Michael discovers there are reasons why some people remain in shadows – and many more reasons why others, including himself, should come into the light. One of those reasons might be the beautiful and mysterious Francesca, who he meets while waiting to interview Shaw.
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
Life In Shadows is set in the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, which is like an oasis of air-conditioned calm in the teeming, polluted heart of the city.
It’s based on a visit I had there, when I watched a young man running through the calm, quiet lobby. Why was he running? Who was he going to meet? Later, as an aspiring writer myself, I couldn’t resist going to the Writer’s Lounge. It didn’t take much to imagine the young man running to interview a writer in there – and a great writer at that. But one who had stopped writing many years earlier, a bit like Harper Lee. But why? I didn’t yet know.
I had a young, aspiring writer, and a much older Great Writer. One more character was born a little later, when I went out to the Terrace Cafe. A young woman was sitting in there, wearing a red hoodie, which seemed totally incongruous in Bangkok’s heat.
Who was she, and who was she going to meet? As with the Great Writer, I didn;t yet know.
And so Life in Shadows was born.
FURTHER READING
Blog Post: Lessons my fictional author taught me about writing
Blog Post: Travel fiction. An accidental genre?